Approximately a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that passes focus are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the race track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the target of six hundred quickly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the mission across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta
